BSS students through to next stage of Grundfos Global Challenge
After a day’s intensive case competition to select the best solutions for how to tackle the water shortage problems of the future, three students from the Department of Economics and Business have now progressed to the final of the Grundfos Global Challenge, where they will be competing against teams from China and the United States.
The three BSS-students – Morten Bæk Jørgensen (MSc (Econ)), Tobias Anderson Lauritzen and Søren Søndergaard (both MSc in Finance & International Business) – from the Department of Economics and Business have won the Danish edition of the Grundfos Challenge 2012/13 and are now through to the final, where they will be up against teams of students from China and the United States. The final is scheduled to take place in March 2013 at the Grundfos facility in Bjerringbro, Denmark.
The Grundfos Challenge is an annual competition for students of business and engineering from all parts of Denmark. The teams are given just a single day to prepare a solution model for an actual problem and present it to a panel of leading Grundfos employees and managers from other companies.
The world is short of water
The problem for this year’s case competition centred on the global scarcity of drinking water. It is estimated that as early as 2030, many people in Europe will have trouble finding sufficient drinking water, and the three BSS students were asked to come up with a solution to this somewhat serious problem.
“We prepared a financing model to help customers who could not otherwise afford Grundfos products to buy them anyway – without this exposing Grundfos to extra risk or undermining the company’s liquidity,” explains Tobias Anderson Lauritzen.
Together with the two other members of his team, Tobias has signed a confidentiality contract and is therefore not permitted to reveal any more details of the solution put forward by the students.
One and a half hour of sleep
This year’s competition was held from Thursday, 15 to Friday, 16 November, when the participating teams from all parts of Denmark had to present their solutions. The teams of engineers competed against one another, as did the business teams. According to Tobias Anderson Lauritzen, it was a good, intense experience:
“It was a lot of fun. Each team had its own tent in a large meeting area, with engineering and business students in alternate tents to prevent the teams eavesdropping on each other. Then it was simply a matter of getting to work. We only got about one and a half hour of sleep but that was sufficient to leave us clear-headed enough to present our solution,” he relates.
The jury praised the three students highly both for their proposal and for their excellent presentation, which they succeeded in putting together in just 24 hours. The team from BSS will be joined by a team from CBS at The final of the Global Grundfos Challenge in March 2013.
Facts
The Grundfos Challenge was held for the first time in 2006 to boost collaboration between education institutions and the business community in Denmark. The competition itself takes place at the Poul Due Jensen Academy in Bjerringbro, Denmark. This is the Grundfos institution devoted to developing innovative solutions and disseminating them throughout the Grundfos organisation.
Additional information
Tobias Anderson Lauritzen
MSc Student, Finance & International Business
Department of Economics and Business, School of Business and Social Sciences
T: +45 6140 4161
Mobile: tobias.a.lauritzen@gmail.com
